heading into the holiday season, households in the United States are dealing with extreme financial

stress. With 60% of people reporting that they live paycheck to paycheck, it should come as no wonder

that few people are taking the narrative of an economic recovery seriously.

We need a new system. We need a new society.

We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not

only realizable, but an imperative necessity. We are very excited to have Professor Richard Wolfe join us for a regular weekly segment

where we discuss the biggest stories relating to the economy, the state of the working

class, and the crimes of big business. I'm Walter Smolerick, filling in for Brian Becker.

The Socialist Program brings you content several days a week thanks to the support of our patrons at patreon.com slash the socialist program.

We appreciate all of your support and encourage you to become a patron today if you enjoy listening to the show.

Richard Wolfe is the co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work and the author of many books,

the latest being The Sickness is the System,

when capitalism fails to save us from pandemics or itself. You can check out all of his work

at rd.wolf.com. Well, Professor Wolf holiday shopping season is underway. I want to just

share with you a few figures from some recent reports that came out.

Consumer surveys. As of October, 60% of adults say that they're living paycheck to paycheck.

That's according to a lending club report. And four in ten consumers consider themselves worse off now than they were in 2022.

I mean, there's a lot of ways to measure the state of the working class,

the financial well-being of working people in the country.

But I mean, this really says a lot, doesn't it,

that 60% of people, six and 10 adults,

say that they're living paycheck to paycheck.

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